Disclaimer: I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia, sorry.

A/N: This can be considered in the same AU as Once A Queen. This is set about five years after the Pevensies came to Narnia the first time, and before the events of The Horse and His Boy.

A/N2: This is a reloaded chapter, to fix an error. I renamed the mercenary company from the Heartbreakers to the Bloody Fangs. They're mercenaries, not a boy band, right?


Fourteen year old Lucy Pevensie was bored. Not just looking for something to do bored, but so bored that she was a heartbeat away from falling asleep. Considering that she was in the middle of her brother's audience session that would be an insult she would never recover from. So she shifted slightly and wished that she was like Edmund and Susan, and had other work she could be doing. Susan's skill was people; she was learning to use her natural beauty to tempt men into sharing things they wouldn't otherwise. Edmund was researching and compiling laws, a task that he had started on a whim and had become an obsession.

Finally, Peter signaled the end of the audiences and rose. Lucy stood up as well and followed her brother out a side chamber. "Thank you," Peter said as their guards flanked them.

"For what?" Lucy asked.

"For agreeing to join me," Peter replied. "I know that audiences aren't that fun, but people respond better when there are two of us. Four terrifies them and one makes them feel like they can pull one over on us. A second person keeps them honest."

Lucy smiled at her brother, "I'm glad I can help," she replied, and then nodded at the pair of fauns who bowed to them as they passed. "I just wish I could do more."

"You already do," Peter said, "you have a kinship with our people that elude me. I can lead them to fight, but they talk to you. Don't think I don't know that you speak to every Narnian before they come before me."

Lucy shrugged, "It's not like I get to go anywhere, Peter. I like hearing about their homes."

"That's why I appreciate it," Peter replied; "you comfort them before they meet me." They reached a cross corridor and Peter stopped, "I'm going to talk with Edmund about his research. Why don't you go have fun?"

"Ok," Lucy replied, trying to hide her resentment. Not that she wanted to set through another of Edmund's lectures on laws and precedence, but she didn't want to be told to run and play. She watched Peter heading down the corridor towards the library and she turned, picking up her pace as she took the hallway to the stairs down to her chambers.

"What are we going to do?" Junea asked as the wolf trotted beside her.

"Kegen and I have a weapons appointment," Lucy replied softly. Then smiled and inclined her head to a pair of badgers.

"If the High King found out," Junea murmured.

"I will handle Peter," Lucy replied as they trotted down the stairs together. "If anyone is going to face heat over this, it will be me."

They left the stairs and hurried across a veranda and into Lucy's chambers. Lucy smiled as she took a deep breath, she loved her rooms, they were open to the sea save for during the worst of weather and always cooled by the winds. Lucy entered her dressing room and nodded as her servant came to help her. In moments she was free of the state dress and shooing Tirana away. Long ago, Lucy and Tirana had come to an agreement, if Lucy was doing something her brothers wouldn't approve of; Lucy would not make Tirana help her. Lucy liked Mr. Tumnus's aunt but the matronly faun could be overbearing at times.

Lucy dressed herself in a pair of Edmund's outgrown breeches and shirt, strapping her belt with dagger and healing juice on to help keep her breeches in place. Then she opened a secret passage in the back of the room and, with Junea following, ran for the barracks of the Bloody Fangs Company.

As she ran, Lucy was, again, reminded of how she'd met the Bloody Fangs…

Jadus was dead, but her army lived on. They fought every summer, seeking to find a weak point in the boy-King. Peter, with Edmund beside him, was becoming an even better warrior every year. When the third anniversary of the Great Battle dawned, Lucy arrived at the war camp with more healers. She rode straight into a battle. Jadus's Army had hired a mercenary company, the Bloody Fangs, former Narnians who made their living by sword, tooth and claw, they had sneaked around the camp in the dead of night and attacked Lucy's party. Twelve year old Lucy barely had a sense of what was happening before Charmian, her Centaur escort, had swept her off her horse and onto her own back to run for it.

Lucy barely remembered Charmian falling, but she did remember waking up in the Heartbreaker's camp. They didn't know who she was, and she kept her head enough not to say anything, at first. The Captain, Joren, had visited her often, trying to get her to tell him who she was. It angered the human that she would not tell him anything, but he was kind to her. As the summer ended, Lucy was brought back to the Heartbreaker's winter home. There she had met fourteen year old Kegen, Joren's son. Kegen had taught her to hunt that fall, mostly for the fun of it, and in part to escape from the mercenaries who stared at her far too often.

Then Kegen was gored by a boar, and only some quick work by Junea had gotten them safe back to camp. But Kegen was dying. Lucy had her cordial with her, and had kept it from falling into the hands of the mercenaries by the luck of Father Christmas himself. It was no choice for Lucy, though, when faced with loosing Kegen, she could make no other choice. She fetched her bottle, snuck into the healer's building and slipped close to her friend. She had watched until no one was paying attention, then made her way to her friend's bedside and let the requisite drop fall into her friend's mouth.

The healers had spotted her and objected, trying to pull her away, but Kegen's revival had stopped everyone. Lucy had hugged her friend, and then found herself facing Joren. "For a girl of no importance," Joren had said, "you are a strange person."

Lucy had blushed, but stood firm, "You know, as I do, that I am a person of importance, in Narnia. I know your people have spoken of the disappearance of Queen Lucy. I am Queen Lucy. On the eve of my family's battle with the White Witch, we received gifts from Father Christmas. I was given the dagger you took from me and this. A healing cordial that only works in my hands."

"You have saved my son, why did you not offer before this?" Joren asked.

"Because," Lucy said, "my people were fighting yours. Why should I help someone who is an enemy?" Joren looked at his son, and then at his people. "Besides, the only people who died since you captured me have been on the battlefield. Once they made it to the healers, none of them died. It's something we learned about the cordial; I put drops in the water they drank. I may not have been willing to admit anything due to the conflict of our people but I am not going to let anyone die when I can help."

Joren knelt before Lucy's chair and looked into her eyes, "Queen Lucy," he said, "my son is the most important person in my life since his mother died. I looked at him today and I thought he was dying. You have given my son back to me, and that is worth everything to me."

"Captain Joren," Lucy replied, "there are two things I would ask of you. The first is to let me go home to Cair Paravel. I have no doubt my brothers and sister are desperate to know where I am. The second is to not take contract with the White Witch's army next year."

"My Queen," Joren said, "I will do one better. I, and any of my men who will follow, will take contract with you."

"You mean, you'll fight for Narnia?" Lucy asked.

"No, I will fight for you." Joren replied.

Lucy smiled as she reached the door to the Bloody Fangs' armory; Peter had been stunned when she had brought the Company to Cair Paravel. Now, though, they were Lucy's guards and friends. Especially Kegen. Lucy carefully pushed the door opened and stepped in. "Which is why any more training my sister gets will be at the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, Kegen!"

Lucy froze, because Peter was there, facing Kegen. Peter looked angry, but Lucy wasn't afraid. "Kegen knows what he's doing, Peter," Lucy said. She strode forward and planted herself between Kegen and Peter. "Kegen's my sparring partner not my teacher."

"Lucy, I told you I didn't want you to learn sword fighting," Peter said.

"I'm not," Lucy replied, "at least, not so that I would charge in to battle. You said I needed to learn to stay alive and I am. I'm learning the short sword as part of a scenario where my guard would be overwhelmed and I would need to protect myself. There's only so much training that can be done involving me being thrown from windows, onto Centaurs, Unicorns or Talking Horses, or off them, for that matter, tossed through doorways and shoved into a variety of uncomfortable 'safe locations'. I'm fourteen, not four. You, Susan and Edmund all got your training years ago, why can't I be trained?"

"Lu," Peter said.

"No, I know why, it's because I'm the baby sister." Lucy snapped, "As you wish, High King. Kegen, I'll see you later, when my lord has pulled his head from his arse." She pivoted and stormed back through the open armory door, her two guards following her.